Egypt’s parliament approved on Tuesday the country’s first bill regulating asylum of foreigners, state-run Al-Ahram newspaper reported, despite criticism by rights groups who said the law poses risks to the rights of refugees.
The government said the law aims to establish a comprehensive legal framework for refugees.
The law stipulates the formation of a new permanent committee, to be led by the prime minister. The committee will take over the responsibility for processing refugees, which has been so far carried out by the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR.
The committee will be in charge of approving or rejecting asylum applications within one year, while working in the meantime with the UNHCR to provide support and services for individuals.
Last week, 22 non-profit groups said the law poses “grave risks” to refugees and asylum seekers. They criticized the “swift and almost secretive parliamentary process” during which the law was discussed, without involving civil society groups that work with refugees.
They also expressed concern over the impartiality of the committee that will be formed.
The NGOs said the law “raises concerns about the compatibility of the modalities that will ultimately govern the committee’s work criteria with international refugee protection conventions that form the backbone of the current asylum system supervised by UNHCR.”
Lawmaker Ahmed al-Awady, who heads the defence committee in parliament, told local TV that the law “is very important for Egyptian national security.”
According to UNHCR, Egypt hosts more than 800,000 registered refugees, primarily from Sudan and Syria.
Egypt has become the largest host country for Sudanese refugees fleeing the ongoing conflict since the outbreak of war in mid-April 2023, it added.
Al-Awady said there are estimates that 9 million refugees and migrants are currently in the country, but that the new committee will gather accurate data.
The law now awaits ratification by President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi to go into force.
